Eric Holder is scheduled to land in Guam today, the first U.S. attorney general ever to visit the U.S. territory, which serves as a center of U.S. military power in the Western Pacific. But the Associated Press reports that after meeting with local officials, Holder will not take any questions from journalists because his tight schedule doesnt give him time for a press conference.

That may be, but the curious omission also spares Holder from any questions about why his department has refused to intervene in or comment on an important court case involving U.S. citizens who are being barred from voting on the island  a far more serious matter than the mainland voter-ID laws decried by Holder as the equivalent of poll taxes.

The Chamorro-native-controlled government of Guam is actively excluding the non-Chamorro U.S. citizens on the island from voting in an upcoming referendum on the islands future. Non-native citizens  Filipinos, other Asians, whites, and blacks  are even prohibited from registering to vote for the election, although they make up 63 percent of the islands 155,000 residents. The intent is to guarantee that only natives will decide whether they wish to sever ties with the U.S. and seek independence for Guam, keep its status as a territory, or move toward statehood. The territorys Chamorro governor and the Guam Election Commission can call the vote on this matter anytime they wish.

The restriction is defended by Guam as being non-racial because it restricts the vote to native inhabitants who lived in Guam in 1950 and their direct descendants. But the Supreme Court has frequently struck down such sly attempts to restrict voting rights. In Guinn v. United States (1915), the Court rejected Oklahomas attempt to close voter-registration rolls by saying that the Fifteenth Amendment nullifies sophisticated as well as simple-minded modes of discrimination. In 2000, in Rice v. Cayetano, the Supreme Court struck down a law that allowed only native Hawaiians to vote on who should run the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. The court opinion by Justice Anthony Kennedy stated: Distinctions between citizens solely because of their ancestry are, by their very nature, odious to a free people whose institutions are founded upon the doctrine of equality. The Voting Rights Act of 1965, barring discrimination in voting, is also in full effect in Guam.

“.....But there is on the island an undercurrent of hostility against the U.S. The local government is dominated by Chamorros, because of high voter turnout on their part and a correspondingly low voter turnout by other ethnic groups. A vocal minority of Chamorros goes so far as to envision the referendum as a first step toward ridding the island of U.S. colonizers. Protesters often call for removal of a key nuclear-submarine base on the island as well as the closure of Anderson Air Force Base, the operating home of B-2 and B-52 bombers assigned to the region. At a time when China is flexing its military might and making incursions into the territory of nations in the South China Sea, Guam is more important than ever to U.S. security interests.

Despite the importance of Guam, ideologues in the Obama administration seem to be actively helping efforts that will only increase ethnic and racial tension on the island. The Obama Interior Department is set to transfer $250,000 to the islands territorial government to promote and advertise the racially discriminatory referendum, which local observers predict will be called in 2014.

Its understandable why Eric Holder doesnt want to answer questions while he is in Guam. The Voting Rights Act he claims to strongly support is being ignored on U.S. soil, and his Justice Department is completely indifferent  or even hostile  to enforcing it. No one would want to address all the contradictions inherent in that position.”

About 15 years ago when my family was living in Japan, we spent a week on Guam for vacation. We rented one of the less expensive motels which wasn't right on the beach, $500 for the week including a fridge and microwave. The beachfront rate would have been about triple that for a smaller room sans the appliances. We drove all over the island and loved it. Friendly people, much more so than in Hawaii, where they just want your money, great shopping and great sites.

We soon found out that the locals practiced three tier pricing (the highest for tourists especially Japanese who are too polite to call them on it, the lowest for locals and everyone else in between). We countered this by opening a local bank account and getting a card from the bank which allowed us to pose as locals. We had lunch in an outdoor cafe and had one of the local Chamaro wait staff girls give us a quick lesson in the local island slang and left her a generous tip.

Then we proceeded to use that knowledge and the bank ID to get us the best rates everywhere or, use my Japanese driver's license in places which gave special rates to Japanese tourists. There were actually quite a few of those places as well, but the majority of them sold brand name luxury goods which had zero interest for us.

We did, however, have to agree with the assessment of most of our Japanese friends and neighbors who had told us about Guam. Most of the natives were friendly and laid back, but lazy. They grow almost nothing, even though the island was a major rice exporter at one time. What they do grow now (mainly pineapples) are mostly worked by imported guest workers.

They do make a lot of garments (great buys on blue jeans), but again these factories are mostly staffed by imported guest workers.

There is a huge hospital downtown, as big as anything you'd see in Pittsburgh, a town of hospitals serving a metro area of 2.5 million, roughly 12 times the population of Guam. I was told that the bulk of the beds were filled by druggies.

Long story short is that most of the locals who work are a distinct minority, either employed with the Guam government or serving in the only two other two industries which keep the island afloat-- the tourist trade and the U.S. Military which, by the way, maintains some fascinating historical sites on the bases, some of which have changed little since World War II save for putting AC in the Quonset huts instead of big fans.

6
posted on 07/16/2012 7:57:52 AM PDT
by Vigilanteman
(Obama: Fake black man. Fake Messiah. Fake American. How many fakes can you fit in one Zer0?)

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